Harmless Trivia
by Catchy Pen Name
Summary: oneshot. Lily and James play a harmless game of trivia. RR


**A/N: **This is just a pointless LJ moment I finally decided on posting. It's been hibernating in my Document Manager for too long. Now, this is short and, like I said, pointless, not an in-depth detail on how Lily and James got together. It's just a humorous little deleted scene. Nevertheless, tell me what you think and whatnot, mucho gracias.

**Dedication: **It's about time I finally posted this, eh Morgan? This is dedicated to Morgan Leigh, aka **Abarraine **(check her out), written for her since she wrote a chapter with me in it (this fic is entitled "Cachinnation," chapter 4), and so I'm returning the favor. :) The character I created for her is Aerean Van Maaren (pronounced Air-e-ann Van Mar-in), who is molded after the real Morgan. And Morgan rocks my face off! lol. Good luck as a senior!

**xxxxxxxxx**

**Harmless Trivia**

**xxxxxxxxx**

Lily Evans sat, quill in mouth and tutting quietly, as she stared across the common room at James Potter, watching as he shamelessly courted a girl; young, too, a fifth year to his sixth. He had her blushing and smiling and stumbling over words, unable to resist his handsome grin and merry eyes.

Lily rolled her eyes at the sight. James leaned in to whisper something in the brunette's ear and she giggled fiercely. Lily scoffed. _So young, _she thought. _So stupid.  
_  
Another girl, young, like the brunette, walked up to the two of them and said something. The brunette looked nervously from the girl to James, then reluctantly got up and followed the girl to the other side of the common room where all their friends were. Lily laughed inwardly at James's surprised face, and couldn't help herself from calling out, "Better luck next time, Casanova."

James's head snapped up in her direction. A grin captivated his face. "Nah," he called back playfully. "I just wasn't interested. I'm much to smart to be fooled like that."

"Smart?" Lily repeated tauntingly. "You don't have a single intelligent cell in your body, Potter."

"Oh yeah?" James retorted, the mischievous smile never waving from his face. "How is it that I'm at the top of almost all my classes then?"

"Sheer luck," Lily replied, an impish air in her own voice. "Plus you've got all the teachers practically in love with you."

"What d'you call the Potions teacher?" James fired back without missing a beat. "You know he can't stand me."

"That would be the luck part."

"And McGonagall?"

Lily paused. "Well, I suppose you have to have knowledge in _something_, wouldn't you say?" she said finally, proud of her smug tone.

James threw his head back and laughed, "You think too highly of yourself, Evans. I'm much smarter than you and you know it."

"That's a lie!" retorted Lily. "Compared to me, your intelligence matches that of a shoe."

"A challenge I say!" declared James. "To the death!"

"You're crazy!" Lily announced, loud enough for the whole common room to hear.

"Ah, backing out, are we?" James said, pressing his fingers together with an all-knowing air. "Good choice."

Lily stood up, her Astronomy book falling from her lap to the floor. "I accept," she said defiantly, not paying any attention to the discarded book.

Aerean Van Maaren, Lily's best friend, was watching this whole ordeal from the chair beside Lily's. She burst out laughing, golden-brown hair falling in ringlets over her bright green bespectacled eyes. She knew how competitive James and Lily were. "And what are the rules to this challenge?" she asked good-heartily.

"Trivia," James replied. "Simple trivia that we all should know."

"Both Muggle and magic," Lily added, secretly wishing it to her advantage.

"Whoever gets the most questions right out of twenty wins," James decided after acknowledging the inclusion of Muggle trivia. "No, twenty-one, so there won't be a tie, although I really doubt that would happen anyway," James added snidely.

"We'll see about that," Lily confidently replied. She knew she could beat him. "When?"

"Now."

"You're on."

Aerean laughed at the absurdity of it all. They were just too full of themselves, and they bucked heads at every meeting. Shaking her head, she and Sirius Black, James's best friend, followed James and Lily to the cluster of chairs and couches near the fire. She and Sirius sat on the couch opposite the mantelpiece, while James and Lily sat in chairs facing each other on either side of the couch, so the three pieces of furniture formed a semi-circle.

"How are we gonna keep score?" Sirius asked. Lily raised her wand and a piece of parchment, divided into two sections labeled _James _and _Lily_, appeared on the table in front of Sirius. "Alright then," Sirius continued, "I'll ask the questions."

"And me," Aerean interrupted, looking at Sirius.

"And Aerean," he added. "Are we ready? Alright, first question is: what spell is also known as the Disarming Charm?"

"Expelliarmus," James quickly answered before Lily could even open her mouth.

"Correct," Sirius awarded, with a proud smile flashed in James's direction.

"Wait a minute," Lily said confusedly, putting a halt to their mini-celebration. "That was to easy. We learned that in second year."

"This is also a game of speed, dear Evans," James replied with a wink. "Gotta rely on more than one strength here."

Setting her jaw, Lily better positioned herself on the scarlet colored armrest. She would be more prepared for the next question.

"What animal is also knows as a hedgehog to Muggles?" Aerean asked.

"Knarle," Lily swiftly answered. She smiled inwardly at herself.

"And a bonus point for it's Ministry of Magic classification," Sirius included at the last second.

"Three Xs," Lily said. "Meaning a competent wizard should handle it."

"Correct," Sirius told her. She looked down at the score sheet and happily admired two tally marks under her name, while James only had one.

"Don't get too sure of yourself, Evans," James said to her quietly. "You never know when I'll strike."

"I'm fine," Lily responded, keeping her voice as uninterested as possible. James winked at her again before focusing on the question Aerean was dishing out.

"It's time for some Muggle questions," she said slyly, looking mainly at Lily, and asked, "What mathematical formula is used to find the hypotenuse of a triangle?"

"Pythagorean Theorem," Lily and James chorused. Lily looked quizzically at him, and he just shrugged his shoulders and smiled.

"I suppose we should give them both points for that," Sirius said, looking at Aerean for support, who just shrugged. "I guess we will then..."

The score was now two to three, and although Lily was in the lead, she was becoming wary of James passing her up on the score sheet. But she wouldn't let him win. James looked at her and grinned, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

"What 19th century British physicist and nobleman developed a temperature scale that he named after himself?" Sirius asked.

"Kelvin."

"Who is the author of _Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them_?"

"Newt Scamander."

"Name a type of dragon."

"Chinese Fireball."

"What country is bordered on its north, west, and east by India?"

"Bangladesh."

"True or false: The earliest brooms had invisible cushioning charms."

"True?"

"Oh come on, Evans, that was so easy."

"Well it's not like I stay up late at night memorizing Quidditch facts, Potter."

"What's so wrong with that, I do it."

"Oh stop bickering, you two," Aerean lightly snapped. "Now, if we can get back to the game? What spell makes invisible ink become visible?"

"See, Potter, I know this."

"Meaning I don't?"

"It's Aparecium, Aer."

"I knew that."

Sirius rolled his eyes at Aerean, who giggled. "What is the first rule in _The Beaters' Bible_?" he asked.

"'Take out the Seeker,'" James replied, casting a superior look to Lily, who glared.

And the game went on, with James and Lily both shouting out answers and occasionally making a snide comment to the other, while Sirius and Aerean did their best to ignore it.

A few minutes later, the score was ten to ten. James was lounged back in his chair, looking quite content, while Lily was a bit nervous. Aerean anxiously searched her mind for a good tiebreaker, but couldn't think of one. She looked over at Sirius, and was surprised to find him grinning at her.

"I have a question," he said simply, and turned to James and Lily. "And now," he declared grandly and with an important tone, as if announcing the arrival of a nobleman, "for the final question. Are you ready, contestants?"

James laughed but Lily clicked her tongue impatiently, just wanting to get it over with.

"And the final question is," Sirius continued, still with the same tone. He made a big deal of clearing his throat, and only stopped when Lily's patience had completely vanished. He grinned. "The question is: which gender is at greater risk of being constipated?"

Everyone stared at him.

"How," Aerean said slowly after a minute's pause, "in the world do you know that?"

Sirius shrugged. "Doesn't everybody?"

"Obviously not," Lily replied, looking oddly at Sirius. "You never cease to amaze me, Black," she said, which made him laugh.

There was another pause, this one however was broken by Sirius's impatient question of, "Well do you have an answer or don't you?"

Lily and James exchanged puzzled looks. "No clue," James told him.

"Well you an at least _guess_," Sirius said exasperatedly.

"Uh," Lily said. "Male?"

"Female," James swiftly countered.

Sirius laughed. "Sorry, Lil, but the correct answer is _female_." James too laughed as Lily made a face.

"Well there's one fact I really didn't need to know," she commented dryly as she got up to leave.

"Oh, you're just acting like that 'cause you lost," James said merrily.

"Don't get your hopes up," she shot back as she made her way to the portrait hole. "Next time, Potter, you'll be sorry you ever said that; I'll kick your butt."

She walked out of the common room leaving James and Sirius laughing, Aerean starting to chuckle.

"She's one hell of a girl," Sirius said, mainly to James.

"Don't I know it," James replied, although his attention was half on Sirius, half on the chair Lily was just moments ago seated. Sirius and Aerean smirked at each other, before getting up and leaving James to dwell in his thoughts, which remained on a certain fiery redhead...

**xxxxxxxxx**

**fin.**

**xxxxxxxxx**

**A/N: **I had to use that cheesy "fiery redhead" line I keep seeing EVERYWHERE, couldn't resist. It's great. :) And like I said, this story wasn't exactly _deep_, and I wanted the ending like that, with James in his crush mode, where he's noticing more about Lily. I have another story half-written, and THAT'S deep, so... look out for that one.

Back to the story. They're a bit full of themselves, aren't they, Lily and James? Well, they're teenagers, what can I say. And they're not in seventh year yet, so James isn't like "Omg Lily you're so beautiful I love you I love you I love you" and Lily's not like "Why am I so jealous of every girl that walkes into James's eyesight what is wrong with me" so... yeah, no flames consisting of that. And excuse the absence of Peter and Remus, they were unable to make it.

Review and I'll buy you a car.


End file.
